Getting home for Christmas
by Reader101w
Summary: It's not always easy to get home before Christmas. But sometimes, a little help can come from an unexpected corner.


What can I say? I was suddenly struck with inspiration to write another story. I hope you enjoy this one as well.

It's not always easy to get home before Christmas. But sometimes, a little help can come from an unexpected corner.

**This is my second entry for ****Whitem's 3rd Annual Snow Daze Holiday Story Contest**

Special thanks to Slipgate for beta-reading this story on such a short notice.

* * *

**Getting home for Christmas**

Sarah stared desperately at the flight schedules, hoping against hope that at least some of the flights would move away from 'cancelled.'

"You just had to stay one more day in New York, hadn't you?" she muttered to herself.

Now it was too late, and the worst thing was that her parents had been so excited that she would finally come home again for a few days during Christmas that she didn't even dare to call them now to say she couldn't make it. If it had just been because of the sudden heavy snowfall that had grounded New York, Sarah would have called without hesitation, but her original flight had been scheduled the day before, when everything was still going normally.

If only she hadn't gone to that going-away party last night, she would be in Seattle now, getting a ride to Aberdeen, instead of the woman she had traded her ticket with.

"_And if pigs could fly, I could have one fly me home,_" she thought somberly.

The fact of the matter was, she was stuck in New York. And unless she could find transport home, she wouldn't be home even after Christmas.

But even that could be troublesome, as thousands of other passengers were milling about, trying to arrange their own way to get where they wanted to be. Buses and taxis kept on moving people to hotels or relatives' homes, and the subways were completely overflowing.

Sarah sighed; even if she could get on a bus or train, there was no place she could go. All her friends that lived relatively close by had already left hours ago since none of them actually lived in New York City.

"Excuse me," an older woman, who Sarah thought looked about sixty, asked. "Do you happen to have some spare change for the less fortunate?"

Absentmindedly, Sarah fished a bill out of her pocket and handed it to the woman.

"Are you sure?" the woman asked hesitantly. Sarah looked up and noticed she was about to give the woman a crumpled twenty. The girl shrugged. "Sure, why not? Not much I can do with it. And I can get a free meal anyway if I show my ticket."

"Bless you," the woman said as she straightened the bill and put it in the charity bin.

Sarah smiled wanly. "I'd need a lot more good karma to balance out my actions." And she explained why she was here at the airport instead of home with her parents.

"Just call your parents and explain it," the woman told her. "They'll understand. And they'll be happy to know you're in good health."

The worst part was, Sarah knew the woman was right, but that only made it hurt more. "I'll–I'll think about it."

* * *

Later that evening, Sarah stood outside of the airport once more.

She had gotten a decent meal that the airport catering was handing out to all stranded passengers that had not gotten to a hotel yet, but she didn't have a place to sleep.

Not that it mattered much, because she was too restless to sleep anyway. Twice she had been on the verge of calling her parents, and both times she had frozen up, unable to actually call them.

"I'll call them tomorrow morning," she muttered after the second attempt. That way her parents would already be happy that she was alive and well, and they would be in the Christmas mood anyway.

It was a terrible thing to do, or even think. But right now, Sarah didn't even feel like she could hear her parents' voices.

As she sat down on her bag, she overheard a couple of students talking about hitching a ride out of New York and trying their luck at a motel closer to the suburbs.

"My uncle said he could take us as far as Allentown," one of the students, a young man, said. "He told me he would pull in here with his truck in a couple of minutes."

"Newark would be good enough, I think," one of the girls said. "Not much use traveling cross-country, right?"

Suddenly, hope glimmered up for Sarah. Maybe she could still make it by hitchhiking.

Then again, traveling from the east coast to the west coast would probably take more than a day, even while driving non-stop.

But she refused to let that put her hopes off of at least getting herself home.

"Excuse me," she said as she walked over to the students. "Do you happen to have a spot free for me to tag along for a bit?"

"I'm sorry," the young man said. "But with the four of us, it's already going to be crowded."

Sarah smiled sadly. "Oh well, always worth a shot."

"You need a ride out of town?" a familiar voice behind Sarah asked.

The girl turned around to see the woman who had been collecting for charity earlier that day.

"I'm only going as far as Paterson, but you can hitch a ride if you want."

"That would be great, thank you," Sarah said with a grateful smile.

* * *

During the ride out of town, Sarah learned that the woman was called Abigail, and that she had been widowed a few years ago.

"My family is scattered all over the word, and I probably won't see them until after New Year's," Abigail said. "But the folks at the retirement home where I volunteer have invited me to celebrate Christmas with them. They still see me as one of the young girls," she added with a wink.

Sarah laughed. "I can imagine."

"If you want, I can arrange a spot for you as well," Abigail offered.

"Thanks, but I really want to try to get home," Sarah said. "If not for Christmas, then at least before New Year's. Maybe if I hitch a ride further south, planes will still be flying."

Eventually, Abigail let Sarah off at a gas station near the highway exit ramp. "Don't forget, if you can't find a ride, the retirement home is really close and you're always welcome."

"Thank you so much," Sarah said. "Have a wonderful Christmas."

"You too," Abigail replied. "Be careful who you take a ride with… and do call your parents, okay?"

* * *

After Abigail had left, Sarah tried with renewed spirits to find another ride, but it seemed her luck had run out; the few truckers that stopped to fill their tanks were either stopping at the parking lot for the night, or didn't want to take a hitchhiker. And passenger cars barely stopped at all.

Eventually, already close to midnight, Sarah was about to give up and call her parents. Then she'd go to the place Abigail had recommended, hoping that the retirement home would still be open this time of night.

But then a purple sports car stopped at the station. A second later the driver, a redheaded girl, jumped out of the car and bolted to the restrooms.

The passenger, a blond young man, stepped out more leisurely and leaned on the roof of the car as he watched her dissapear into the building or so Sarah assumed, disappear into the building.

"_Last chance_," Sarah thought to herself. If these people wouldn't give her a ride, she would give.

"Excuse me," she said as she walked over to the car, "but you're heading west, right?"

"Yeah," the man agreed. "Do you need a ride?"

"I do," Sarah admitted. "How far are you going?"

The man shrugged. "Where do you need to go?"

Sarah looked down. "Aberdeen, Washington. But anything in between is good as well," she hastened to add.

The man whistled. "That's quite a distance. Let me talk to my girlfriend and see what we can do."

As Sarah watched the man walk off to the restrooms where his girlfriend was emerging from the building, hope began to spring anew; from the man's reaction, they were also traveling a long distance, and she may be able to cover quite a distance… if the man's girlfriend would also agree on taking her with them.

Sarah watched as the man said something to the woman. The redhead shrugged and nodded, but then the man added something, and his girlfriend began to laugh and shake her head. Finally, after some more convincing words, she finally smiled and nodded.

Sarah was a bit hesitant. She had no idea what the couple had just said to each other and waited as she watched them walk back to her.

"I hear you need to go to the West Coast?" the girl asked. "I'm Kim, by the way."

"Sarah," Sarah said as she shook the woman's extended hand. "And yeah. I was hoping you could get me a bit along toward there."

"Sure, no problem," Kim replied. "Do you have any luggage with you?"

"Only my bag," Sarah said, lifting it to view. "I can keep it on my lap if it takes up too much room."

Kim turned to her boyfriend. "Ron, can you move some of our stuff? I think Sarah's bag can fit next to her on the back seat."

"Sure thing KP," Ron said, and he lifted Sarah's bag up like it was nothing. "Why don't you two get in the car? It's pretty cold outside."

* * *

A couple of minutes later, they were driving on the mostly deserted highway.

"So, where are you heading?" Sarah asked.

"Middleton, Colorado," Kim said.

"Wow, so you also have a long ride ahead of you," Sarah noted.

"Far, not so much long," Ron corrected her vaguely, causing Kim to grin. Sarah didn't really understand the joke, but decided not to comment on it.

"Where did you come from?" she asked instead.

"London," Ron said. "Fighting monkeys during some weird winter solstice thing…" He noticed her puzzlement. "Don't ask," he added with a shudder.

When Kim noticed Sarah's confused frown in the rearview mirror, her smile only grew bigger.

"We just finished some last-minute Christmas shopping in New York," Ron then said.

"Good thing we only needed to pick up your order, and were able to cash in a favor," Kim said. "They were long since closed when we finally got there."

Ron chuckled. "But think how happy Hana will be with the gift. Besides, I'm not the one who suddenly needed to get a bathroom stop."  
"Well excuse me for not having an iron-clad bladder," Kim replied good-humored. "Besides, it doesn't matter much in the travel schedule anyway. We'll be home in a bit."

Sarah frowned, geography had never been her strong suit, but this comment seemed a bit off. "Isn't Colorado, like, halfway across the country from here?"

Kim looked at the display on the dashboard. "About fifteen hundred miles as the eagle flies. Speaking of which, what time is it?"

Ron checked his watch. "Almost midnight."

Sarah only got more confused, and a bit scared as well, to be frank. "Why, what happens at midnight?"

Ron stared out the window with a dreamy smile. "Well, then it's Christmas, of course."

"Right." Sarah smiled nervously.

Noticing that their behavior was making Sarah uncomfortable, Kim was about to put a stop to it, but then Ron turned around and looked at Sarah with child-like glee. "Christmas is a magical time. What do you think powers Santa's sleigh? You know, if you believe strongly enough, it will even be enough to get you home before Christmas morning."

Sarah, feeling a bit more relaxed now, smiled wanly. "If only…"

Ron turned to Kim with mock disappointment on his face. "It seems we have to do the believing for the three of us."

Kim chuckled. "You'll get on that. I've got to concentrate on piloting this thing."

As the little dashboard clock hit the 0:00 mark, Kim flicked a couple of switches and began to accelerate.

Sarah began to get nervous again when the car passed the 100 mph mark, and the engine roared loud enough to promise a lot more. So far the car had held easily, even on the snowy road, but Sarah was sure this was too much.

"Guys, even at these speeds it will take a long time to get home," she pleaded. "I prefer to arrive a bit later and intact."

Kim only smiled. "There's nothing to worry about. We've done this thing more often than we can count."

As the redhead flicked more switches, Sarah noticed a different sound coming from the car. If she didn't know better, she would say that it sounded similar to airplane engines during take-off.

Suddenly, she was roughly pushed back into her seat, and the car was flying across the road.

And then she realized that the car was literally flying across the road, and was gaining altitude as it went.

Meanwhile, Kim was talking to a small screen that had appeared in front of her. "This is Possible 1, airborne over the Essex county area. Submitting a changed flight path."

After a brief pause, the reply came. "Copy Possible 1, the air is free. You are cleared for the adapted flight path. There won't be anything at your altitude."

Kim smiled. "Thank you. Climbing to FL100. Merry Christmas. Possible 1 out."

"W-w-we're flying!" Sarah cried out, clutching her seat with all her might.

"Relax," Ron said with a grin. "We told you we've done this before. Sorry about the ruse before. I thought it would be funny, with the Christmas magic and all."

Sarah nodded nervously, digging her fingers even deeper into the seat as the car continued its ascent.

"With the time difference, you may even be able to celebrate a bit of Christmas Eve with your parents," Kim said as she began to level off the vehicle.

Sarah's eyes grew wide. "Really? I mean, how fast are we going?"

"Currently, we're about to pass Mach 2," Kim replied, grinning as Sarah's eyes grew even wider.

"We're going faster than the speed of sound?" She cried out as she finally released her grip on the seat. "But, I thought that went with a loud boom."

"Not from inside the vehicle," Kim replied. "And with the inertial dampers, even the acceleration isn't much of a bother."

Sarah turned to look back at the glow that came from behind the car. "You have a rocket powered car?"

"Yeah, my brothers made it," Kim said proudly. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"Until you hear her complain about the lack of space in the trunk," Ron quipped, causing Kim to glare at him for a moment.

"I'm not the one buying their sister huge boxes with toys," the redhead remarked.

Sarah didn't listen too much to the couple's playful banter; she was too absorbed by her surroundings. "This is unreal," she muttered as she looked down at the clouds, and then up through the sunroof to look at the bright stars, too high for any light pollution to obscure them.

"Do you think we'll see Santa's Sleigh flying around here somewhere as well?" Ron asked.

Kim smiled. "You do the believing, and who knows what you might see."

* * *

Before too long, actually a lot sooner than Sarah had expected, or even wished – she had quickly begun to enjoy this amazing ride – the car began to descend.

"Next stop, Aberdeen," Ron announced as Kim landed the car close to the bay and drove the last part to Sarah's home.

As Sarah grabbed her bag, Kim looked at the clock and reset it for the time zone. "It's half past ten, plenty in time to spend Christmas Eve."

"Thank you so much," Sarah said. "If there is anything I can do to pay you back…"

Kim shrugged. "No big, just enjoy Christmas with your family."

"Do you want to come in?" Sarah offered regardless. "And have something to eat before you leave again?"

"Nah," Ron said. "We'll eat when we get home, but thanks for the offer."

"We've got to go if we want to spend a little bit of Christmas Eve with our folks as well," Kim added. "Have a good night, and a great Christmas!"

As the car drove off, Sarah dreamily walked to the front door and rang the doorbell.

"Mom, dad," she said happily when she greeted them and gave them a hug. "Merry Christmas."

"You too," her mother said overly happily. "We were afraid you couldn't make it."

"So was I," Sarah admitted.

"Sis!" Sarah's younger sister jumped from between her parents and gave her a big hug. "You made it! Mom and dad allowed me to stay up until you got home."

"Hey Emily." Sarah hugged her sister as tears welled up in her eyes, partly of joy, and partly of guilt that she hadn't called sooner.

"Look!" Emily suddenly said, and pointed upwards. "A falling star, you can make a wish."

Sarah looked up in the clear sky at the rocket trial high above her. "I think my wish has already been granted."

END

* * *

**A/N: **I hope you liked this little story. Don't forget to read the other entries as well. And don't forget to vote.


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